This week the Backstreet Boys released their eighth studio album, In a World Like This. The first album on their own record label, K-BAHN, it’s also the first to feature Kevin Richardson, who made his departure after 2005’s Never Gone.

Radio.com spoke with Nick Carter this week, and he filled us in on what the songwriting process was like for the band (they wrote eight of the 12 tracks on the new LP), his favorite Backstreet Boys’ dance move, and how he deals with overzealous fans.

Radio.com: Tell us about your new album In a World Like This. How is it different from your previous releases?

Nick Carter: This album, in my opinion, it’s just solid material. Really good songs. We were having a hard time narrowing down to choose. Everybody buys singles now. Nobody really cares about buying albums anymore, rightfully enough because most people make crappy albums. Why spend all that money on it when you can just buy a single? We come from an era where we had to make an entire record that sounded like every song could all be a single. That’s what we did on this one. We had a hard time picking the first single. We give our fans that still buy albums and anybody who wants to hear a record from top to bottom, every song can be a single. We give them that.

You all had a hand in the songwriting process this time around. Can you give some insight to what those songwriting sessions were like?

The songwriting has honestly been one of the most fun processes in this entire project. Now we’re able to write things that we care about in the music. We’re able to put us in the music. Put our life experiences and everything in there. When we perform them on stage we can sing about them and I think that that’s important. Over the years we have been able to work with some really great writers; learning from all these other amazing writers and producers. You name the producer, we worked with them. This time we applied our experiences to the record.

You’ve said this is a very personal album. Are you ever afraid to reveal too much in a song?

When you’re writing an album or writing a song you need to put your heart on the table. You need to put your heart and your pen to the paper because that’s what makes an emotional song. That’s something that people relate to. We didn’t want to write songs anymore that were just like a boy band recording songs from other producers and writers. We wanted to be able to feel these songs. That’s how the best songs come out. Any songs out there in the world, it’s all emotional, it’s feeling.